Response speed advantage for vision does not extend to touch in early deaf adults

Abstract

Early deaf adults typically respond faster than hearing controls when performing a speeded simple detection on visual targets. Whether this response time advantage can generalise to another intact modality (touch) or it is instead specific to visual processing remained unexplored. We tested eight early deaf adults and twelve hearing controls in a simple detection task, with visual or tactile targets delivered on the arms and occupying the same locations in external space. Catch trials were included in the experimental paradigm. Results revealed a response time advantage in deaf adults compared to hearing controls, selectively for visual targets. This advantage did not extend to touch. The number of anticipation errors was negligible and comparable in both groups. The present findings strengthen the notion that response time advantage in deaf adults emerges as a consequence of changes specific to visual processing. They also exclude the involvement of sensory-unspecific cognitive mechanisms in this improvement (e.g. increased impulsivity in initiation of response, longer-lasting sustained attention or higher motivation to perform the task). Finally, they provide initial evidence that the intact sensory modalities can reorganise independently from each other following early auditory deprivation.